PHOTO BY ADAM ROGAN | MANAGING EDITOR
The Drake Women’s Basketball season came to a sudden end after losing to Kansas State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
THE TIMES-DELPHIC The weekly student newspaper of Drake University
Vol. 136 | No. 19 | Wed. March 22, 2017 timesdelphic.com
OPINIONS
SPORTS
FEATURES
The new “Beauty and the Beast” movie has left an impact on a student. Opinions Editor Jessie Spangler reviews the new movie and takes a look at Disney’s newest venture. Read more on page 3.
The Student Organizational Showcase put on by SAB will be happening tonight on Pomerantz Stage at 7 p.m. Seven organizations will be performing, including DU Spoken Word, El Ritmo Latino and Spoon University. This event is new to campus. Read more on page 6.
Drake Women’s Basketball advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade. The Bulldogs lost in the first round to Kansas State. Still, the team and its players broke several records and ended several program droughts. Read more on page 8.
IOWA NEWS
20-week abortion ban makes its way to Iowa House for vote Katherine Bauer News Editor katherine.bauer@drake.edu @bauerkatherine Abortions after 20-weeks of pregnancy could become illegal in Iowa if a bill makes its way out of the Iowa House and is approved by the governor. Senate File 471 was approved in the Iowa Senate March 14. It passed 32-19 with support from all 29 House Republicans, two Democrats and one independent. “It’s a good compromise,” said junior Brooke Miller. “That’s why I agree with it a lot. I do fall more on the moderate side of the spectrum. I feel like it is a compromise. I don’t think it would’ve been able to pass without it. Republicans have majority control. But you still have those moderate republicans in Iowa.” Miller said she’s a republican who identifies as pro-choice. She said the bill allows early abortions to appeal to liberals and still limits them for conservatives. However, pro-choice advocates like Phoebe Clark said she does not think the bill is a compromise at all. “It looks like a compromise, but it’s really not,” the senior LPS major said. “We’ve seen in other states (especially Texas) that 20week bans have been the first in a series of more legislation that restricts abortion in different ways and makes it harder to access.”
Clark said the 20-week time frame begins at a woman’s last menstrual period not when she became pregnant. “(Women) probably won’t know they’re pregnant for a while,” Clark said. “The age of the pregnancy will be calculated from way before any fertilized egg was implanted in their uterine wall.” However, Miller said the bill looks to not only protect the life of unborn children but also the life of the mother. “It does limit your pro-choice abilities,” Miller said. “(However,) in a normal pregnancy, you should be making that decision before five months anyways in order for your life not to be at risk as a woman. After five months, you’ve made this decision whether or not you want to get an abortion, aside from rape victims, complications later on after five months, and aside from domestic abuse and minors.” Miller said abortions become riskier the longer a pregnancy goes on. The American Pregnancy Association said common side effects of various late-term abortion methods include nausea and cramping. More severe effects can include heavy or prolonged bleeding, blood clots and perforation of the uterus. “To learn if I have an abortion after a certain amount of time in a pregnancy, I may not be able to have kids again is a very concerning thought that I wish I would’ve known,” Miller said. “They need to be telling me that when I’m 15 (years old).”
Clark said she recognizes that abortions do become more dangerous later on in a pregnancy. However, she said women and their doctors should make that decision, not legislation. “(Doctors are) the experts on this issue, and they know how to keep people as safe and as healthy as possible,” Clark said. “Limiting abortion in this way just keeps doctors from doing their jobs.” Clark also said the bill won’t stop women from seeking abortions, which could lead to unsafe practices. “If people seeking abortion run out of time to get one legally, I’m sure some of them will attempt to self abort, which gets more difficult and dangerous as the pregnancy matures,” Clark said. “It is fairly likely that people in this situation will die or suffer serious health consequences.” Ryan Skotzke, a sophomore pro-life proponent, recognizes the concern that women will try to get abortions, even if they’re illegal. He said there is a different path to slowing and stopping the abortion rate. “If you come out and quickly ban it across the board, you’re not really solving anything,” Skotzke said. “I don’t want to see people terminating pregnancies at will, so you have to build a culture where you don’t have those unwanted pregnancies.” Skotzke said there are ways to build that type of culture. “I’m actually against placing restrictions on birth control,” Skotzke said. “A lot of Republicans are going to disagree
with me on this. But if you have easy access to birth control … it remains affordable, and maybe (we should) work on better sex education in schools ... if you can take these steps to minimize unwanted pregnancy, that will definitely keep the abortion rate down.” Recently, there have been low rates of abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that only 1.3 percent of abortions in 2013 were performed 21 weeks or later in a pregnancy. The vast majority of abortions, 91.6 percent, occurr in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy. Miller said the government should not have an unintended, negative effect with their decisions. “The risks are lower when you have Planned Parenthood who are experts in those fields and you’re not just having coat hanger abortions,” Miller said, “which is something you don’t want to encourage as a government.” Clark said she could see the legislation getting through to be signed into law by the governor. However, she said she hopes it won’t come to that. “It’s very possible,” Clark said, “but I’d much prefer for this to be killed in upcoming debates in the House.”
According to 2013 CDC data*,
20-29 -year-olds accounted for the majority of abortions.
91.6%
the number of abortions performed at 13 weeks or less.
7.1% the number of abortions performed between 14-20 weeks.
1.3%
the number of abortions performed after 21 weeks. *All data is from the 2013 study “Abortion Surveillance” conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
CAMPUS EVENT
‘Listen, We Need to Talk’ sparks discussion of LGBT rights Drake Rhone Staff Writer drake.rhone@drake.edu @drakerhone Twenty-five students and faculty members met in Sussman Theater Monday night. They met with the authors of the book “Listen, We Need to Talk,” to discuss how to change opinions about LGBT rights. The authors, Dr. Brian F. Harrison from Northwestern University and Dr. Melissa R. Michelson from Menlo College, said that their research originated when they saw how public opinion on issues relating to LGBT rights were shifting. They said they started speculating on the cause of this shift. The bulk of the talk was focused on their hypothesis that opinions about a topic, such as marriage equality, could be changed by using a leader in a group that an
individual identifies with to ‘cue’ the target belief in that person. Harrison said that this tactic could be used to promote equality at Drake. “Drake students believe in equality,” Harrison said. “Drake students believe in inclusion. It’s a value that we all share. That can move people forward in a variety of things. Not just LGBT rights but other things as well.” Harrison gave an example. People could remind others that Iowa was one of the first states to allow marriage equality in the country. “(We say), ‘We’re a place that values the rights of small minority groups,’” Harrison said. “Anything to sort of cue a common identity in inclusion could be really powerful.” Michelson said she believes a problem in America right now is that no one is really talking about these issues with the other side. “For regular people like
Drake students, the application of this is to talk about this sort of thing with people and maybe bring in elite cues or maybe just share your opinion with people,” Michelson said. “Don’t be afraid to talk about contentious politics. Don’t cut yourself off. You’ve probably seen how we’re all dividing ourselves into red and blue camps, and we don’t talk to each other. We’re just getting more and more insulated in our little bubbles.” Michelson said change won’t come without that dialogue occurs. “Nobody’s minds are going to change if we don’t talk to each other,” Michaelson said. “We’re encouraging people to not do that. Talk to each other. Break through the bubble. Maybe you’ll change someone’s mind or maybe your mind will change.” During the talk, the two authors presented their successes and failures in testing their
various theories during the research phase of the book. They then fielded questions from the audience about their book and strategies, as well as giving advice to a few of the audience members on how to change public opinion in their own communities. While the authors spoke heavily of their identity cue process, they said that the strategy may not work for all issues, and they are finding new ways to affect opinions while writing their next book on transgender rights. “Our theory on LGBT rights doesn’t necessarily work on transgender rights,” Harrison said. “So we’re developing some new strategies that we think will be better at cuing support for transgender rights. We think that frankly the transgender identity is misunderstood. People don’t have enough information. A lot of people are just viscerally uncomfortable with transgender people, so talking about what you
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have in common probably isn’t going to work.” To make any significant change, Harrison said more than one group has to employ these various strategies to be successful. “I think that the burden of attitude change shouldn’t only be on the group that wants rights,” Harrison said. “Minority groups can’t just expect that their group can change policy. You need people that aren’t in that group to speak out. We can’t only speak out for rights that affect us and people like us, we have to think about other groups and reach out to other groups to say rights for other groups are important to.” Michelson agreed with Harrison on this point. “Rights for transgender people, rights for Muslims, those are small populations,” Michelson said. “The idea is that the burden shouldn’t be on groups to fight for their own rights, they need allies.”